


When It's All Said And Done

by poetically_ordinary



Series: Prompt Fills [3]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Arguments, Breakup of the Team, Broken Team Dynamics, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 23:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8597758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetically_ordinary/pseuds/poetically_ordinary
Summary: It was just one argument. Who could have guessed that it would have all turned out like this?





	

“What’s it going to take Steve? What’s it going to take? To make you realize that I’m on your side? What more can I do? Tell me.” Steve’s shoulders go back as he stands his ground, opposite of Tony’s aggravated pacing.

“I never said you weren’t on our side.”

“Then what have you been saying Steve? Because that’s the message everyone else is getting. ‘Tony keeps secrets’, ‘Tony may not be a threat but he’s certainly not a hero’, ‘What the hell has Tony done this time?’ Name one time Steve, one time where you sided with me?”

“Maybe if I weren’t constantly questioning your motives we wouldn’t have to be here.” Steve snaps back and Tony throws his hands in the air.

“Why the hell are you even questioning them? What have I ever done to you that makes you think I’ve never had your back? What is it about me that makes it to where the smallest glint of something being my fault makes you jump on that bandwagon and ride it into the sunset? And even _after_ it’s been proven I didn’t do a damn thing- you still refuse to get off your fucking high horse?”

“Language.” The reprimand comes easily off his tongue, like second nature.

“You’re about to not like the language I’m about to take. Tell me Steve. Tell me what it’s going to take for you to realize that I’ve never been against you. I’ve never been against the innocent people that I am _trying_ to protect.”

“I can’t trust you to have my back Tony.”

“Why not?”

“Because you never take anything seriously. You’re always acting as if this is just some new adrenaline rush game that you’re playing. This isn’t a game it’s people’s lives.”

“So that’s what will do it? Never crack a joke? Never try to lighten the mood or the situation? Never banter with anyone? That’s what will do it? Fine. It’s done. You’ll never hear those sorts of things leave my mouth again on the field. Is that enough? Or do you need it outside of the suit too? Where is the line Steve? Where do you want it?”

“And then there’s things like this! You get so overdramatic and then you lash out and everything blows up in our faces. Why can’t you just _grow_ _up_ Stark?”

“And what does _that_ entail Steve? Tell me what that looks like?” Tony takes a step towards Steve and Steve clenches his fists feeling like the bubble is about to break and they’re about to be at each other’s throats. “Tell me what I have to do to apparently be a ‘grown up member of the Avengers’? Lay it on me. I want to know.”

“You don’t want to know Stark, you just want to throw a pity party for yourself.”

“You’ll never know until you tell me. Tell me what it looks like.”

“Why don’t you try listening to orders once in a while? Why don’t you try not keeping secrets in that ‘big brain’ of yours and actually learn to share with the class? God, how can I trust you to have my back on the field if I can’t even trust you out of my sight? You’re arrogant, rash and an all-around bully who seems to think you can buy your way into being a hero and that you’re better than everyone else. Sorry to tell you Stark, but you’re not that special.”

There’s an obvious pause after his statement, and the rage is gone seconds later. For a moment it looks like Steve might apologize for the words that just came out, but he remains steadfastly silent.

Tony’s stopped all of his movement after Steve’s little tirade, his body going perfectly still as he just looks at Steve. “Fine. Done.” There’s an eerie sort of hollowness to his tone and it registers on some level to Steve.

“You know what, whatever. I’m done talking, this clearly isn’t fixing anything.” Tony doesn’t respond to Steve’s statement and says nothing as Steve practically storms out of the area.

~*~

It’s barely two days later when the Avengers are called to Assemble. Steve’s been replaying the conversation he had with Tony in his head and he half expects Tony not to show up. He half expects Fury to come to him and tell him that Stark has quit the Avengers and refused to allow them to keep playing with his toys until Steve apologizes to Tony for some imagined infraction against him.

So Steve’s surprised when he gets to the location and Iron Man is already present. The armor is smooth in flight, taking out various Doom Bots as Thor lights up the sky with lightning, plowing down any other not in their way.

“Iron Man, Hawkeye needs a lift.” Steve wonders if Tony’s going to say something sarcastic or snarky to him but instead of that, or any of Tony’s various ‘archer’ quips that he always does before shuttling Clint anywhere, he says just one word.

“Done.” And then he’s over by Hawkeye and dropping him off at Hawkeye’s requested location. There’s nothing from Tony throughout the rest of the battle either. No comebacks or stupid quotes from movies that Steve has yet to see or understand.

It seems to throw off Doctor Doom as well, who seems to continually keep trying to engage the Iron Man pilot. It never seems to work as Tony never takes the bait and they capture Doom, not that he’ll ever actually stand trial, and Tony just stands there with his repulser up pointing at the diplomat. Doom quiets down a few moments, taking in Tony quietly before letting out a cruel laugh.

“So they’ve finally broken you have they? Pity.”

Those are his final words to Iron Man as they load Doom in the back of a vehicle and he disappears from view.

This would be the moment when Tony would always congratulate them all for a job well done and offer some kind of team bonding experience, be it a new restaurant they’ve never tried or the chaos that was the paintball war with Natasha and Clint. Steve doesn’t realize he’s waiting for it until it never comes.

“Good work Shellhead.” He offers up in praise and there’s no response, no overdramatic posturing or poise.

There’s nothing.

~*~

Tony’s silent in the next meeting, and eyes keep glancing towards the brunet almost as if trying to discern what is wrong with him.

Steve is starting to feel a little bit of irritation at the other’s obvious tactic. It’s not making anything better and it’s not endearing Stark to anyone. Instead it’s starting to feel more and more childish as the seconds tick by.

“Anything you’d like to add Tony?” Steve asks and Tony just looks up. There’s no real emotion that Steve can place down on his face and for the first time Steve realizes just how expressive the other man used to be.

“Yes, I’d like to run some things by everyone.” The voice is flat, without feeling and Tony flicks holographic screens to each of them. There’s far too much happening on the list in front of him, and Steve looks over at Tony. “If you’d turn to section 1A, the new request for time delay arrows initiated by Clint.” The screens pull up information as Tony just talks through various ideas and intentions for creating upgrades and service requests.

Steve never knew so much information and things went into half of the designs that Stark offered up to them at the end of the day. He also didn’t realize the sheer number of requests that Tony got from SHIELD and from the Avengers themselves. It takes almost an hour just to go through the list as Tony marks down their responses. Bruce is looking at Tony with that intense ‘I’m reading into your soul’ look and there’s clearly something there that he finds that he doesn’t like. “The ETA will be uploaded to your personal devices. Please feel free to keep an eye on any and all progress.”

Clint looks down at his Stark Pad and frowns. “Five weeks to prototype production? What gives Stark?” Steve glances down and looks at what Clint is talking about. The new arrow upgrades are marked in there with a countdown of five weeks. Normally it would take Tony at most three or four days.

“Due to production models and backlog, that is the current proposed completion date.”

“Since when does it take you five weeks to do a simple time delay bomb?”

“The Stark Industries R&D department is handling a heavy workload at this time. It will take them a while to get around to the design schematics.”

“R&D? Since when do you let the R&D handle Avenger stuff?” Clint pouts and Tony simply closes down the screens.

“Unfortunately my own calendar is full at this time. I will no longer be handling upgrades anymore. I have every intention of leaving this meeting and taking a meeting with Fury to alert him to the change in status.” Tony stands and buttons his suit. “You are all welcome to sit in that meeting if you would like. Open door policy as it were.”

Mild irritation turns back to simmering rage as Steve realizes what this is. It’s exactly what he feared and now Tony’s finally getting around to throwing his temper tantrum. “Stark, a word.” He snaps out and Tony nods once and follows him into the adjourning room. “What is this? Is this because of what I said to you the other day? Because this is petty Stark.”

“I’m going to have to ask for clarification. What are you asking about Captain Rogers?” Tony doesn’t look like he’s fully in the conversation and it just rankles Steve.

“Now you’re going to pull out of the Avengers? Are you really that childish?”

“I am not being childish.”

“Then what is this whole ‘I need to talk to Fury – open door policy’ talk?”

“That is me making sure that you are all aware of every action I take in regards to the Avengers. You have already informed me that you do not appreciate when I have meetings that you are unware of.”

“Stop it Stark.”

“Stop what Captain Rogers.”

“You’re trying to pick a fight with me and I’m trying to have a conversation with you.”

“I assure you I am not trying to start a fight.” Tony’s voice is still flat, emotionless.

“Then what is up with the R&D speech?”

“SHIELD has its own R&D department, SI should have never been producing products for SHIELD or the Avengers outside of our pre-approved consultant agreement. As a courtesy, any and all requests put in before Tuesday will be accepted into the pipeline and finished by SI developers. All future requests will have to be put through to SHIELD R&D.”

“This is because of what I said.”

“You were not incorrect Captain Rogers. Unfortunately at this time however, SI will no longer be funding or producing anything in regards to SHIELD or the Avengers Initiative.”

Steve wants to shake Tony or pull out his hair. This isn’t how this was supposed to go down this week at all.

When Steve fills the others in on Tony’s new ‘I refuse to pay for anything’ stance he watches various reactions from across the team and feels like each one of them is a representative of how he’s felt at one point during this whole thing.

Finally Clint sighs and leans back in his chair with a pout. “So the free ride is over huh? That sucks.”

~*~

Things only get worse from there.

Fury is clearly furious with them, and has made them all go on so many missions to restore ‘team spirit’. It doesn’t seem to be working, as this new robot version of Stark is present each time.

Half of Steve wants to ignore this tantrum that Tony is throwing, especially since it seems to be working against the brunet.

The team has never been so on point.

There’s no wasted movement or actions. There’s no arguments or questions to his orders and they work like a well-oiled machine. Clearly whatever Tony was trying to make Steve and the team realize is backfiring on him. Steve is almost sure that when Tony realizes that he’s not going to get his way, that he’ll immediately revert back to his previous annoying self.

Each day that passes, each mock and real mission that they go on, Steve keeps waiting for it to happen.

It never does.

~*~

“What did you do?” Bruce finally confronts Steve one day, and Steve feels immediately defensive.

“What do you mean Dr. Banner?”

“Don’t even play that game with me Steve. What did you say to Tony? What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything, and I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.” Bruce crosses his arms and it’s clear that they’re going to have this out here and now. “Stark asked me what would make him a part of this team and I told him.”

“Tony was already a part of this team.”

“Actually he wasn’t.” Natasha’s voice startles them both and they look at her. “Stark was never a member of the Avengers. He’s just a consultant.” Bruce looks confused, and Steve’s pretty sure that’s the same reaction he had when he overheard Tony and Fury talk about it during their meeting. Fury had offered full membership to the Avengers, as a placating response to the brunet’s stance and it was obviously completely surprising to him when Tony turned it down. Refusing to join the Avengers Initiative past a consultant level.

“Nothing has changed, if anything things have gotten better.” Steve says to Bruce and the scientist looks at him like he’s gone crazy. “Hear me out, missions are a breeze. Stark’s company has been doing great if the news are to be believed. I’d actually say I did us all a favor.”

“A favor?” There’s a green tinge in Bruce’s eyes. “A favor Captain?”

“Bruce?” Natasha takes a step forward to calm the other down.

“No, this…this is wrong Natasha. And you know it. Tony…he’s been through enough lately without some icicle from seventy years ago telling him how to be.”

“Tony’s fine Bruce. He’s just trying to get attention. This will all blow over.” Bruce just looks at him before shaking his head.

“You’re an idiot.” He leaves the room and Natasha follows after him with a look he can’t place.

Steve doesn’t understand why they’re mad at him, he didn’t do anything wrong.

This is all Stark’s fault and somehow it’s affecting them all again.

How like Stark. Always breaking everything he touches.

~*~

“Where’s Bruce?” Steve asks Clint over lunch in the cafeteria and Clint just pushes some potatoes around his plate.

“You didn’t hear? He resigned.”

“What? Why?”

“Said something about a difference in ideologies.”

_Damn it Stark look what you’ve done now._

~*~

“Colonel Rhodes, thank you for filling in.” Steve says as he pushes the mask off of his face. He’s sweating and he wants to take a shower. The War Machine armor just looks at him and Steve can feel the weight of the judging look being given to him by the other. “Um…how’s Tony? I hope everything’s okay.”

“Mr. Stark is fine.”

“Is he on another mission? We don’t really get to see you around here.”

“Get used to me. You’ll be seeing a lot of me.”

“Oh. Tony should like that.” There’s a pause before Rhodes answers him. Even through the vocal modulator Steve can hear the venom that the other man is speaking to him with.

“Tony won’t be showing up as Iron Man unless a situation that I deem necessary for his assistance arrives.”

“What?”

“You heard me Captain.” Rhodey snaps. “Iron Man is retired.”

_Seriously Tony? Isn’t this taking it a bit far?_

~*~

Steve doesn’t see Tony or Bruce again until Ultron.

Hank Pym, the head of Pym Tech whom the SHIELD R&D reached out to, accidentally unleashed the force inside the mind stone into the general populace.

It’s strange to see Iron Man standing there, and it’s even stranger when Tony leaves the armor and barely spares Steve a glance throughout the whole affair.

 _“Stark will do anything to make it right. Who is to say he knows the difference between saving the world and destroying it?”_ The words of Wanda Maximoff land him in Tony’s lab. The other man is just standing there amongst dozens of SHIELD agents and Pym Tech scientists doing nothing, and everyone questions why Steve was so quick to come storming into the lab to attack an ally at the word of a Hydra agent – Steve has no answer for them.

In the cradle, the body dies before Thor or Ultron can get to it.

Thor takes the Mind Stone back to Asgard once Sokovia falls. Tony doesn’t say a word to him as he disappears out the door as well.

Steve tries not to think about it as he moves on, training the new Avengers for whatever is next to come.

~*~

“These are the Sokovia Accords.” Secretary Ross says with an undisguised relish as he shoves them towards him after Lagos. “The UN meets in three days to ratify them.”

~*~

“You look them in the eyes and you say: No, you move.” The words feel like they’re a message from Peggy from beyond the grave.

Steve doesn’t realize that maybe he’s not the one telling the world to move. It never crosses his mind that they’re the ones telling him to.

~*~

“You need to come in Captain Rogers.” War Machine demands and Steve stands his ground.

He doesn’t hear till later that Colonel Rhodes has been killed.

He knows it’s a reckoning when he sees the Iron Man armor for the first time since Sokovia.

~*~

It’s blind rage that fuels him as he gets him down and tears at the suit. He needs to see Tony’s face. He needs to see the face of the man who ruined the world.

Tony’s bloody when Steve finally rips it off and Steve can’t stop.

The crunch will haunt his nightmares till he dies.

He didn’t mean for it to go that far.

Oh God, what has he done?

~*~

Someone releases security footage from Siberia and the world cries out for justice.

Justice for Iron Man.

Justice for War Machine.

Steve looks around and wonders how it all went wrong. He wishes he could do it all over.

In his nightmares, Tony’s bloody face and dead eyes laugh at him.


End file.
